icefall

noun ice·fall \ ˈīs-ˌfȯl \

Updated on: 29 Apr 2018

Definition of icefall

1 : a frozen waterfall

2 : the mass of usually jagged blocks into which a glacier may break when it moves down a steep declivity

Recent Examples of icefall from the Web

On the Langshisha Glacier, Dawa Yangzum easily navigated the uneven icefall and gaping crevasses.

— anna callaghan, Outside Online, "Smashing Guiding's Glass Ceiling," 3 Apr. 2018
The icefall gave way to a barren strip of gray moraine dotted with yellow and orange tents, the remnants of the season's Base Camp.

— author: john branch, Anchorage Daily News, "Deliverance from 27,000 feet: The journey home for 2 climbers who perished on Everest," 19 Dec. 2017
On March 23, an icefall buried and killed one climber, Jake Breitenbach.

— sewell chan, New York Times, "Norman Dyhrenfurth, 99, Dies; Led First U.S. Team to Reach Top of Everest," 27 Sep. 2017
The siphons lowered the height of the lake by nearly 20 feet, but they were damaged in recent icefall, and only two are now working.

— nick miroff, chicagotribune.com, "Peru and its melting glaciers are an early test of adapting to climate change. It's not going well.," 7 Aug. 2017
The siphons lowered the height of the lake by nearly 20 feet, but they were damaged in recent icefall, and only two are now working.

— Washington Post, "Peru’s glaciers have made it a laboratory for adapting to climate change. It’s not going well.," 7 Aug. 2017
In 2014, the year an avalanche swept through Everest’s Khumbu icefall, there were 16 deaths.

— binaj gurubacharya, The Seattle Times, "The tragedy of Everest’s normal: 10 dead this season, so far," 24 May 2017
Atop K2’s near-vertical slopes, glacial icefalls dislodge car-size hunks of ice.

— michael powell, New York Times, "Scaling the World’s Most Lethal Mountain, in the Dead of Winter," 9 May 2017
However, these proposals present an economic conundrum for Sherpas, whose wages could be reduced because they are paid, in part, per trip through the icefall, according to Jennifer Peedom, director of the 2015 documentary Sherpa.

— National Geographic, "Nepalis Hold Their Breath as New Everest Climbing Season Begins," 15 Apr. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'icefall.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of icefall

1803

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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